Sandy’s little robot is a winner

Enterprising PhD student Sandy Enoch has scooped several awards for Marty, a robot that children can build and programme for themselves.

Remotely controlled over wifi, Marty can walk, turn, dance and even kick a ball. Setting up and customising Marty can help users to learn about programming, electronics, mechanical design, 3D printing and robotics. The 20cm-high robot uses half the number of motors normally needed to make it move, which cuts down its production costs.

University support

University support in developing Marty as a business concept has come from Launch.ed, which helps student enterprises and Edinburgh Research and Innovation, the University’s commercial liaison unit.

PhD in Robotics

Sandy is graduating this month with a PhD in Robotics achieved under the supervision of Professor Sethu Vijayakumar. He developed Marty as a side project, alongside his studies.

Sandy says:

“I'm the only full time person involved in the project right now, but I do have some help from friends in Informatics including Alejandro Bordallo, a PhD student being supervised by Dr Ram Ramamoorthy, Nantas Nardelli who is about to graduate BSc Computer Science and Angus Pearson, who will be going into fourth year Computer Science after doing a summer internship with me at Robotical.”

Starter packs

Sandy has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help kick-start his company. Advance orders for Marty ‘starter packs’ can be ordered via Robotical’s website, with delivery expected from January 2017 if the crowdfunding campaign is successful.

The University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number
SC005336, VAT Registration Number GB 592 9507 00, and is acknowledged by the UK authorities as a
“Recognised body” which has been
granted degree awarding powers.